APRU-IRIDeS Multi-Hazards Summer School 2017 addressed burning issues around the ring of fire

Tohoku University hosted the 2017 APRU-IRIDeS Multi-Hazards Summer School in July. The event drew lessons from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, and provided a platform for participants to discuss various disaster risk reduction (DRR) projects that have since been implemented.

"I think disaster mitigation is already as much a global issue as it is a local one," said Takako Izumi, coordinator of the APRU Multi-Hazards Program, and associate professor at Tohoku University's International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS).

As an example, she pointed to the Sendai Framework that was adopted by 187 countries at the 2015 UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. "Vulnerable countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, which used to spend a lot of money on response and recovery, are now allocating more resources to risk reduction because they realise how important it is to be prepared. And that's very encouraging."